Irreal

The Second U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled that the NSA’s mass metadata collection is illegal. That’s great news, of course, but the ruling is narrower than we’d like. The Court ruled that Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which the NSA depends on for authorization of the program, does not, in fact, authorize the mass collection. The Court made no mention of the more serious Fourth Amendment considerations, presumably leaving that for future Supreme Court adjudication.

The Court noted that Congress is currently debating the program and stayed any action until Congress has had its say. The Court’s decision is here. There are plenty of politicians on both sides of the aisle who think the program is just fine so it’s important that we all contact our representatives and tell them that it’s not fine with us.

ADDENDUM: I urge you to read the Court’s opinion. If you have any interest in forensic-style argument—and what geek doesn’t—you’ll enjoy reading the court’s reasoning and analysis of the Government’s arguments.

One bright note, for example, is that the Court took note of the dangers of metadata and showed themselves aware of its potential for misuse. They even quoted the Science article on deanonymizing such data that I wrote about previously.

The opinion is 97 double spaced pages but is very easy to read. Not at all what you might imagine a legal document to be like.

I’m sure most Irreal readers are familiar with the fake cell phone towers known colloquially as “Stingray” after the version manufactured by the Harris Corporation. Vox has a nice article on the status of the Stingray and the deteriorating government efforts to keep the use of the device secret.

As things stand now, the government is dismissing cases against dangerous defendants rather than release information about the program. That probably won’t last much longer because the details are leaking out and judges and prosecutors (not to mention defense council) who have been kept in the dark about the program are discovering its existence and scope.

The real problem for the device is that it vacuums up details on all nearby cell phones, not just those of the suspect the government is trying to capture. That’s a clear Fourth Amendment issue. Although the government swears they aren’t doing so, the device can also capture actual conversations as well as phone metadata.

The Vox article explains what the devices do and the current status of the legal arguments against them. Vox don’t mention their use outside the U.S. but I’d be surprised if they aren’t being deployed everywhere. The article is definitely worth a read. Of course, you run the risk of coming away infuriated.